Chile - Sam Beecher Geology 9

Week 13 Blog: Coastal Erosion in Chile  This week's blog is going to discuss the coast of Chile and the problems it faces. Chile has a huge coastline, in fact, their coast that runs up Chile is over 4,300 km long (2671 mi). Chile is a very slender country and since a majority of its large cities are along the coastline, a huge chunk of the population is at risk of coastal dangers such as sea levels rising and coastal erosion. Because of global warming, rising sea levels have reduced the coast little by little every year, it also creates soil that isn't strong and is in danger of dropping off and being sunken. However, the most destructive force to the coast, besides earthquakes, are the millions of people who walk along the beach every year. According to Coastalerosion.com, they state "The coasts of central Chile are increasingly affected by human activity." There really isn't much the country can do to prevent this, the incredible beaches are a major draw to t...

Week 10: Extreme Weather This weeks blog will be slightly different, Instead of talking on Chile's extreme weather, I will be talking about the U.S.'s extreme weather. This weeks blog will be all about what extreme weather is and all of the kinds of extreme weather that we have in the United States. First, extreme weather is defined as a weather pattern that is severe and potentially dangerous which is not of the norm. An example of this is a blizzard. A regular snowstorm is somewhat normal depending on the area, but a blizzard is an extreme case of a snowstorm. The United States has no shortages of Extreme weather. Some examples of what the U.S. has are as follows: Hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, tornados, heat waves, droughts, major flooding, lightning, hail, blizzards, and many more. The U.S. Experiences all of these across its expansive land. One example of this is where I am from, Colorado, Hail, flooding, lightning, heat waves, droughts, and blizzards have all happene...

Week 8: Soil subsidence in Chile This weeks blog will talk about Chile's ground and how susceptible it is to subside. Hello all! this week's blog is very interesting, it's all about soil Subsidence. Soil subsidence is when the surface level of the soil in an area changes in elevation. This is caused by both natural and man-made effects such as mining, natural compaction, hydrocompaction, sinkholes, and permafrost. The country of Chile, like most, deals with this to some level. Chile is known for its powerful earthquakes. In 2010, one earthquake was so powerful that it caused several of the Chilian volcanos to sink. "shows that five volcanic regions within 248 miles of the 8.8-scale earthquake in Maule, Chile, sank up to 6 inches into the ground after the earthquake, almost instantly. This process, called subsidence, has never been seen on this scale in volcanic regions and could lead to insights about the “plumbing systems” underneath volcanoes" The cause of t...

Week 5: Volcanic Activity of Chile This week's blog will be about discussing Chile's Volcanic history both past and present. Hello all, I am not really sure why I start my blogs with this considering there are a solid 2 or 3 people who read this weekly, but regardless I am happy you are here! Chile is in what is known as the Ring of Fire, which is a figurative ring that runs around the pacific ocean that is characterized by a line of active volcanos and frequent earthquakes. Chile's entire coastline is in the Ring of Fire, and the country has a total of almost 2000 Volcanos mixed in with the Andes mountain range which runs along the spine of the country. Not all of those 2000 Volcanos are active, according to Volcanos of Chile, they say "About 500 volcanoes are potentially active, 36 are currently active and 44 have erupted at least once since 1820. In the last 20 years, there have been 15 volcanic eruptions". Comparatively, Chile is pretty active when it come...

Week 3: Seismicity What is Chile's seismicity? And what is the country doing to prevent an earthquake catastrophe? Hello all, this week we're going into a little bit more detail about one of the topics from the week 2 blog. As stated during that week's blog, Chile has a very high risk of earthquakes because of its close proximity to the Nazca fault line. This week's blog will be all about the seismicity of Chile and what the country does to prevent these frequent earthquakes from being more devastating than they could be. USGS.gov is a website that shows earthquakes across the world in real-time. According to that wedsite, Chile Experienced  2 minor earthquakes on the day of this blog post. One was a 5.2 Magnitude, the other a 4.7. Both of these are small comparatively and caused no disruption or harm and many people probably didn't even notice its happening. Because of all of these earthquakes, Chile has a very efficient and advanced system of protection. One o...

Week 2: Plates and Boundaries Are there any plates and boundaries by Chile, and what dangers do they pose to the country? Hi everyone! this week's blog post will be dedicated to the fault lines that are near the country Chile and what threats they pose to the country. Chile happens to be very close to a Convergent Boundary called the Nazca Plate. With these, come both appeals and drawbacks. The great and beautiful Andes mountains are products of this subduction fault line, having been created over millions of years. A negative of being so close is all of the possible natural catastrophes that are likely to happen. According to "Earthquakes in Chile" Chile has an astounding "2 Million minor earthquakes every year, about 18 major earthquakes, and 1 earthquake of a magnitude of 8 or higher". Another tragic fact about Chile and its earthquakes is that the most powerful earthquake in history happened in Chile. It is called the Valdivian Earthquake, it registered ...